The Errant Æsthete

Self-Portrait: Reflection (1996)

The NY Times profiles the work of the strenuously lionized British realist painter Lucian Freud, who at 85, has managed to paint only people he knows and cares about, equating flesh with oil paint. Freud’s work “has not so much been to break new ground as to dig incessantly deeper into the old. By doing so he has intensified our understanding of figurative painting’s familiar landmarks to the point of discomfort,” writes Roberta Smith.

“His strenuously worked surfaces portray bodies and faces in ways that convey a punishing sense of life lived — of too, too solid flesh weighed down by experience, indulgence and cowardice.” Lucian Freud’s work is currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art through March.

Daughter: Bella, 1981

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